Heading West from Top End

Top end is behind us:

We spent four days in Darwin – that will be our farthest North travel, on the ground, at least, at about 12 degrees S. It was hot and humid the whole time. We picked Colin up at the Darwin airport Friday noon, and pretty much spent the weekend visiting with him. That included a day trip to Litchfield National Park with the van. It does have three seat belts, but is not really comfortable for the middle passenger (Sylvia). We also dined out, and even went to a movie – not much opportunity for movies in East Timor, where Colin currently lives.

Much of our recent time has been spent bird-watching. We have a book of Australian birds, and there are many and colourful varieties. So, we have been identifying them and photographing where possible. The long lens on the SLR makes that much easier. We will include bird pictures here from time to time. Sylvia is keeping a log, and has pages and pages of sightings.

Anyway, we also spent a day at Katherine Gorge (photo included) and a couple of days in Kakadu National Park, where we did the Yellow Waters boat ride again (did it 11 years ago, last time we were here.) We did do the hiking involved in looking at the Aboriginal Rock Art at Ubirr, again. My walking/balance problems do not seem to be improving, although I have been mainlining the B12 for most of a month now. So, I did the flat trails, but not the ones involving climbing on uneven surfaces (Sylvia did them).

Things have been going smoothly enough. We did have a problem at home, where Telus completely disconnected our phone, not the partial disconnect that they promised, disabling our security system.. We seem to have it straightened out now, but I have no confidence in those bozos. If you think their service is bad when you are right there, try it from a few time zones away. Anyway, as a public service: if you know anyone really stupid, or who does not speak English very well, recommend that they go to work for Telus – those seem to be attributes they value.

We are approaching one month in the Van, and are still together. 80 days or so left to go. The last few days have been poor sleeping, as it has been warm in the van at night. We do have a bug net we can hang over the tailgate, to leave it open at night. That works okay, although the dingos were howling just behind us the other night, which kept us awake. Anyway, we do have a small fan which helps, but may stop and buy another, larger one.

In Kununurra just now, thinking about an air trip down to the Bungle Bungles. We expect to spend three or four days around here, so may get an update or two done before we launch across the outback to Broome.

The photos – that is me in the pub at Daly Waters, where we stopped for a beer (tradition) yes, those are bras. Colin, Sylvia and I in front of a termite mound in Litchfield, Colin and Sylvia swimming in Buley Rockhole, a scene from Katherine Gorge, and a Rainbow Lorikeet.

More photos from Darwin

Some photos I couldn't upload yesterday - not sure when we will get to high speed next, so may not be any for a week or two. G'day from Darwin!

I can see for miles and miles...

Okay – in Darwin now, going to pick Colin up at the airport in an hour or so. Hoping to find an intenet place to post this to the blog, once we go downtown.

Travelling:
Lots since the last posting. We knew that this would be the long driving section of the trip, as there is not much to stop and look at or places to stay when crossing the Queensland plains or most of Northern Territory. Will have more of this crossing to the West Coast in a few days. For now, we will spend about four days in Darwin. Still, our longest day has been about 630 km, about the same distance as Prince George to Terrace. Van is working fine, our fuel economy is about 11 litres per 100 km (26 mpig). Fuel cost is averaging 1.30 per litre, about what we estimated. That’s the good news. One of the roadhouses cost 1.639 per litre, and we have heard of higher prices further West. Exchange rate still working okay for us, paying less than 90 cents to the $A on the credit card.
Speed limit in Northern Territory is 130 km/hr. We are not driving that fast, of course. If I exceed about 100, my navigator will point out that we will be around Australia in three weeks. That is the human navigator. The Nuvi doesn’t care how fast I go.
We have been identifying and (where possible) photographing tropical birds. Some pretty good success on that count. Will include some photos here.
The bucket
For those of you who were worried about not having a bathroom in the van, the bucket works just fine. Of course, we use the French pronunciation le bouquet – seems to make it smell better.
The Roads
Are generally excellent, although many of the interior Developmental Roads are a single paved track, so you have to move over onto gravel when meeting someone. Not all of the road trains move over, so windshields are quite expendable here. The highways tend to be humpy bumpy, while flat and straight as far as the eye can see. It is nothing to drive 50 km without turning the wheel or meeting another vehicle.
Very Hot
While we have not seen any clouds since we crossed Capricorn, it has been, for the most part, very warm – in the mid to high thirties every day – very humid, now that we are at the coast. I bought a thermometer to check the temp. Don’t know if I will bring it home ‘though – it only goes down to zero. Many of the Caravan Parks where we stay have swimming pools, so we have been using them a bit.

Gone troppo...

Well, maybe not quite troppo, but if we stayed a little longer….. We crossed Capricorn a week or so back, and worked our way up the coast – ‘way up the coast. We have spent time in Townsville and Cairns before, with side trips to Magnetic Island and the like, but for some reason had never gone to Daintree National Park and Cape Tribulation. So, this time, we did! If you don’t have this area on your list of places to visit before you die, put it on there now. At 16 degrees from the equator, it is lusher, with better beaches than many of the islands we have visited. Anyway, we will stay tropical for a few weeks yet, until we cross Capricorn again on the way South down the West Coast.

For us, the highlight of our visit was clearly our stay at Wonga Beach Caravan Park. We spent three nights there and felt like we belonged. Many of the residents of this place are long stay, some permanent. So, I guess we were fresh meat, but have rarely experienced such hospitality. We participated in Happy Hour in the Happy Shack all three evenings, and maybe most of the transients don’t. The last night we were there, we were invited for fish and chips at $A3 per head. The fish (mackerel) were donated by some of the inhabitants that go fishing each morning – so they will have something to talk about at Happy Hour. Actually, Happy Hour for the fishermen is called “early starters” and starts an hour before the regular Happy Hour. Anyway, it was quite a feast, and a real experience. The whole place is like a cross between “The Beach” and “Cannery Row”. Life on the beach is pretty seductive, early to bed – it gets dark at 6PM – and then wake up to the tropical birds at about 5AM. Sylvia thought that listening to Kookaburras cackle was pretty neat at first. However, they start their routine when the sun rises. We are now shopping for a 12 gauge. So, time to move along. Will tell you about the locally-produced “rum” when I see you.

We are now heading South and West, to get to Darwin by the 21^st. This is being written on Friday Sept 14^th, not sure when I will find an internet café that will support uploading to the Blog – the one in Mossman didn’t.

Photos follow, well actually above. I added them last, but they came out first. Anyway, quite a nice internet den in Charters Towers, beautiful day, and we are about to head West on the Flinders highway.

Under way in OZ

Well, we are on our way. As you can see by the attached photos, we picked up the camper van on schedule. It is nearly new, just 32000 km, and seems to be pretty well outfitted. Of course, that does not stop us from outfitting it more – we bought some plastic tubs to store our stuff in, so our packs are stuffed in the back end of that high top. We had a good trip, sunny weather, up the coast from Sydney – took four days to drive to Toowoomba. Have been visiting here with Bob and Sue since Tuesday, will head out up the North Coast tomorrow (Friday) morning. The van is quite compact, but very comfortable to sleep in. Fridge and stove seem to work fine, and the unit is very easy to drive, and reasonably economical on fuel (about 11 litres per 100 km, or 25 mpg).
Anyway, we are over the jet lag, and used to driving on the Left side. So, will carry on and take more pictures.